


Attack of the Killer Toyotas

by ssa_archivist



Category: Smallville
Genre: M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2001-12-05
Updated: 2001-12-05
Packaged: 2017-11-01 09:49:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/355207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ssa_archivist/pseuds/ssa_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clark and Lex discover their intense devotion to one another as they prepare to save Smallville from a crazed CarBot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Attack of the Killer Toyotas

## Attack of the Killer Toyotas

by Lunar Plutonian

[]()

* * *

ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOYOTAS, PART I, by Lunar Plutonian 

DISCLAIMER: I am in no way affilliated with the television show "Smallville", and any copyright infringement is purely unintentional. 

BACKGROUND: This story began as a joke "Smallville" episode writing at the "Smallville" forum of <http://www.mightybigtv.com> . I took the ideas and ran with them for the conclusion of the story. Here is a summary of the other posters contributions before I hi-jacked the thread. 

[With thanks and appreciation to the posters known as Gigantor, Battlechop, freeyourmind, Wootini, eanja, Lantern 7, ktbaxter, kleenexwoman, and Dr. No for being the primary contributors to this story-frame thus far.] 

Whitney is speeding along a country road while drinking a beer. A Kryptonite-filled pothole causes him to lose control of his car and he crashes. Clark happens along and pulls Whitney away from the flaming wreck. After Clark and Whitney flee the scene, the wreckage forms itself into a deadly CarBot, vowing revenge for the abuse his automotive brothers have suffered at the hands of careless Smallville teenagers. 

The next afternoon at the Smallville fertilizer plant, the CarBot steals Lex's Porsche before Lex can do anything about it. That evening, after Whitney and his friends were playing basketball at the high school gym, they all go out into the parking lot and are horrified to see the CarBot trashing everybody's cars. The CarBot is about to kill Whitney when Clark speeds along in an invisible blur and whisks Whitney out of the way into a shallow pond in a small wooded area next to the parking lot. 

As Clark speeds off to deal with the CarBot, it turns out that the pond into which Whitney has been deposited is Kryptonite-infested, and Whitney morfs into a Scary Goth Kid hell-bent and venting his wrath on Smallville preppy-dom. 

Clark confronts the CarBot, but the CarBot throws Clark into the same wooded area, and Clark lands in an area strewn with Kryptonite and is suddenly incapacitated. The CarBot stalks off with various and sundry parts from the cars he has just trashed. 

[I know this doesn't sound very promising, but I turn it into a more serious story with my own contributions. Besides, one must admit the lampooning of "Smallville" stock plot-devices is at least a little well-deserved! ;-) ] 

* * *

Lex Luthor was speeding along towards the parking lot of the high school in his back-up Porsche. He was tracking the whereabouts of his original Porsche with a homing device he had planted in it as part of his system for deterring car-thieves. (After all, didn't most people ignore car alarms those days?) He saw the CarBot walking off with the parts of the trashed cars, and he realized to his profound dismay that his beloved Porsche was now part of that mechanical beastie. 

Lex drives his car up to the stunned jock-boys and asks, "What the hell was that thing?" 

"Damned if I know," one of them says, "but it almost killed Whitney, but then this blur comes along and carries him away. Then Kent comes along actually thinking he could stop that thing, and knocked him into that clearing of trees over there. There probably isn't very much left of him now." The jock-boy turned to his friends and said, "Guys, I say we get out of here!" Lex sneered contemptuously as they ran off without even making sure Whitney was all right and shut his car off so that he could go looking for Clark. 

An aching lump formed in Lex's throat at the idea of finding Clark's broken mortal remains in the wooded area into which he was entering. Lex immediately saw Clark on the ground surrounded by more of those damnable meteor fragments, alive and unbattered but apparently not in such good shape. Lex had to ask the barely conscious Clark if Clark had broken anything several times before Clark weakly replied, "No...." 

Lex picked Clark up off the ground and wondered how he might seek revenge on the CarBot. As Lex carried Clark from the woods, Clark's stunning blue eyes abruptly opened and were as clear as the Kansas sky on a summer day. "Lex, it's okay, I think I'll be fine...." Clark said, apparently aware of being in the awkward position of being carried by his older friend. 

Lex's lips manifested a slight quiver as if they suddenly realized the proximity of Clark's pouty, dark-red lips, but Lex stopped himself. Clark would have to be the one to make the first move, he had resolved that quite some time ago. The last time he had made the first move, it had been an utter disaster. Lex shook the thought from his mind because he had resolved never to think about that past trauma ever again. But sometimes it proved difficult not to think about it: It had been that incident that had gotten him expelled from both the university and from Sigma Omicron Beta, the fraternity of which he had been a member for slightly less than a year of his young adult life. 

Suddenly, Goth-Whitney emerged from the wooded area, his eyes glowing electric-green with alienated madness. He looked at the awkward scene of Lex carrying Clark and said, "Well, isn't THIS freakin' romantic!" 

* * *

Clark got down from Lex's arms and saw that Lex apparently realized Clark was a lot heavier than he should have been. 

Goth-Whitney leered pruriently and said, "Oh, don't let ME interrupt your magic moment!" 

"Are you okay, Whitney?" Clark asked with no small amount of trepidation in his voice. "Where did you get that black trench-coat?" 

Suddenly, Whitney got all "Matrix", in graceful slow motion walking up the side of the nearest tree and continued his shocking defiance of gravity by walking on the underside of the lowest large limb. "Take THAT, you rich-kid fag!" Whitney growled as his booted feet pummeled Lex onto the ground. 

A surge of white-hot rage filled Clark. He didn't know what angered him more: Whitney's attacking Lex or the slanderous lie about his chrome-domed friend. As Whitney slammed into Clark with his next attack, Clark found himself FLOATING in the air the way he had been that one time while he had been dreaming about Lana. Clark shook off the thought. This was no time to be thinking about Lana; Lex was in serious danger, and Clark had to act! 

"So you like to dance, do ya, Goth-Boy?" Clark challenged while still in mid-air. "Then let's boogie!" 

As Whitney went into one of his pirouettes in the air to level another attack at Clark, Clark imitated Whitney's supernatural acrobatics but with far more grace and precision, focussing his mind to call up a tiny fraction of his extraordinary strength. The two met in mid-air; Clark kicked Whitney's feet out from under him and pushed him downward. Whitney fell to the ground with an undignified THUD! Whitney was knocked unconscious but was otherwise unhurt. Clark let himself down to the ground and turned around to see that a wide-eyed Lex had just regained consciousness moments before. Clark's SuperMopey heart sank at the idea that Lex would think Clark was some kind of freak and wouldn't like Clark anymore. And what were they going to do to help poor Whitney? This is really horrible, Clark thought glumly. 

* * *

Lex awoke from his stupor and saw something that made him wonder just how hard Whitney had knocked him to the ground: Clark was defying gravity as well, and was doing so far more adeptly than Whitney. Clark took out the angry mutant without even breaking a sweat. Clark returned to the ground and turned around to see Lex staring at him in utter disbelief. Clark then got this adorable deer-in-the-headlights look that almost made Lex forget the unreal spectacle he had observed only seconds earlier. 

"Clark, how...." 

Clark attempted a rather lame save. "Whatever affected Whitney must have affected me too." 

Lex rolled his eyes and suppressed the urge to say, "Oh puh-leeeeze, Mary!" Instead, Lex simply said, "Those jock-boys who just took off from the parking lot told me that the CarBot thing almost killed Whitney, but a blur came along and spirited him away. That was YOU, wasn't it, Clark? They also told me about how that thing threw you from the parking lot to over there. And those meteor fragments....You seemed as if you were dying before I took you away from them. But this only confirms something I've suspected ever since you pulled me from that car-wreck. You're not like other people, are you, Clark? And you're not just another meteor-mutant because....." Lex stopped himself because he knew his words would betray his feelings. "....because you're just not." 

Clark's breathing became more labored and he seemed as if he were about to cry. "I don't really know what I am, Lex. But if people found out, they'd take me away from my parents and from Smallville and from you...." Lex wasn't sure if he had Clark say what Clark had said. "....and study me like some kind of lab specimen. Lex, you can't...." Clark abruptly looked away, unable to continue. 

Lex's heart melted in a way he had never thought even remotely possible. He got up off the ground and walked over to Clark, putting his hand on Clark's shoulder. "Clark, I'm your friend. Whatever it is that makes you different, I won't tell ANYBODY, even if I thought they'd believe me." Clark looked at Lex with a full-on SuperPout, his eyes bright and moist. "You can trust me," Lex continued. "Completely. Without question." 

Lex brought his face closer to Clark's, feeling his own lips quiver once again. Lex pulled Clark closer, and Clark didn't resist at all. 

The moment was interrupted by the sound of a car off in the distance heading in their direction. Lex pulled away from Clark and turned around to see Chloe in the driver's seat with Pete sitting next to her. Lex felt as if he could smack the both of them upside the head, but he regained his composure as he remembered these were Clark's best friends, and making a good impression on them was very important. Chloe stopped the car and got out at the same time Pete did, saying, "Clark, we heard you'd been hurt by some metal monster that...." Chloe saw the unconscious Goth Whitney on the ground and exclaimed, "Oh my God, not another meteor victim!" 

Clark seemed to pull himself from the emotional chaos written on his face mere moments earlier and replied, "That's as good an explanation as any. He attacked me and Lex just now, and it took the both of us to stop him." 

"Are you okay?" A wide-eyed Pete asked, obviously having thought he would find Clark dead. 

"Yeah," Clark said. "I think those guys were in shock. They don't really know what they saw." 

Lex saw the opportunity to demonstrate his sincerity to Clark. "Yes, the only thing that happened is the CarBot threw Clark a few feet and then made off with a bunch of car parts from all those cars he had just trashed." 

Chloe looked down at the unconscious Goth-Whitney and said, "Is there anything we can do to help him? Lana is going to be so freaked!" 

Lex suddenly thought of the disgraced Dr. Hamilton whose meteor-research he had been funding on the side for the past few months (with the help of some creative blackmail), and how the good doctor had been telling Lex about how green meteor-fragments and red meteor-fragments neutralize one another when present in roughly equal amounts. "I think I can help him. I'm not sure. But we have to try." 

"Good," Clark said, "Let's go." 

"No," Lex replied, "I should really do this myself. Trust me on this." Not only did Lex not want to let Clark anywhere near Dr. Hamilton's meteor collection, it also seemed to be a good idea, at least for the time being, that Clark not know about Lex's meteor-related curiosity. Lex shot Clark a this-is-important look. 

"Okay," Clark said reluctantly. "Chloe, Pete, and I can go back to the offices of the Torch and see if we can find out anything that will shed light on this CarBot mystery. But I want to know as soon as you know for sure about Whitney, okay?" 

"Not a problem," Lex said as he slung the still slumbering Whitney over his shoulder and walked over to his car. After Clark, Pete, and Chloe were out of sight, Lex put Whitney in the back seat of his car and bound Whitney's hands with his "special-occasion" handcuffs and feet with some duct tape. Lex looked at Whitney bound and helpless and felt a stir of temptation. "No," he said to himself, "I'm supposed to be helping the guy!" 

Lex got behind the wheel of his car and zoomed off to Dr. Hamilton's makeshift laboratory. 

* * *

Chloe went with Clark and Pete to the offices of the Torch to do some creative research that might shed some light on the CarBot mystery. After Chloe did an exhaustive computer search, it remained that the only thing they knew was the obvious, namely that the green glow in the CarBot's headlight eyes squarely pegged this as more meteor-related weirdness. Pete decided to call it a night after making another inquiry as to whether Clark was alright. 

After Pete left the office, Chloe shut off the computer on her desk as Clark sat in a chair on the other side of the desk. She saw Clark's smoldering eyes lost in thought and wondered what was going on. "Clark," she said, "can I ask you a personal question?" 

Clark broke out of his reverie and looked at her with that innocent farm-boy expression of his. "Sure," he said with only the slightest hint of trepidation in his voice. 

Realizing her question would likely not be well-received regardless of how she phrased it, she plunged right in: "How do you feel about the fact that Lex Luthor is deeply in love with you?" 

Clarks eyes went wide, his jaw dropping open after he gulped noticably, and his hands tightened on the arms of the chair in which he was sitting. Chloe jumped back at the sound of a loud <CRACK!> as the ends of the arms of the chair were suddenly detached from the chair, clenched in Clark's white-knuckled hands. "Chloe, have you gone completely insane?!" Clark glared at her with a look that could burn a hole through steel. 

Chloe regained her composure. "I'm sorry to upset you Clark, but how can you not realize it? That one time he was here in the office, the way he was looking at you. He winked at you. TWICE! The gifts he's always giving you. The way he talks to you, responds to you. Even you couldn't be that naive!" 

Clark looked nervously at the pieces of the chair in his hand (the chair must have been made of some really old, dry pine wood) and set them down, trying not entirely successfully to regain his composure. "That's just not possible. Lex has been trying his heart out to get me and Lana together. Like the time he gave me those concert tickets...." 

Chloe rolled her eyes and said, "Don't you know that when someone is trying that hard to push two other people together, it usually means he has the hots for one of those two people? And it's YOU he follows to school under the pretext of meeting the school paper's editor, not Lana." 

Clark was so not appreciating any of this. He bolted up out of his chair and pointed his finger at Chloe. "I DON'T need to be hearing this kind of shit about someone I consider a close friend, even if it's from someone else I consider a friend! YOU need to start minding your own damn business, Chloe! For crying out loud, are you looking to start a gossip column or something?!" 

Clark looked as if he were on the verge of hyperventilating. And that was the first time she had ever heard Clark swear twice in two consecutive sentences, let alone do so with such vehemence. After a brief awkward silence, the phone rang. Chloe picked it up and then told Clark that it was Lex calling for him. Clark took the phone as he shot another glare at Chloe. Chloe realized she majorly crossed the line, even if she was right. 

* * *

Lex and the fully recovered Whitney sped away from Dr. Hamilton's place with Whitney staring straight ahead in stunned silence. That was quite a change from the Goth-Whitney's attitude on the way there. Upon waking up bound in handcuffs and duct-tape, Whitney had said, "I suppose you're taking me to your love-nest so that you and your boy-scout gay-buddy can do some gang-action on me, huh?" Lex had wanted to stop the car and pound the helpless mutant bloody and senseless for talking that way about Clark but also had guiltily remembered the twinge of temptation he had felt earlier. 

"You're not yourself, Whitney," Lex had said evenly. "You need help." But Whitney would have none of it. Lex had simply screened out the boy's rantings all the way to laboratory. It had proved a good thing that Dr. Hamilton's meteor-radiation particle-beam prototype had been up and running, because it had seemed as good an opportunity as any to test Hamilton's theory about the red meteor-fragments. The beam had needed a bit of time to charge up, and Hamilton had slowly raised the intensity until Whitney had become transformed back into his dim-witted self, black trenchcoat replaced with letter-jacket. Weird science at its best, Lex had thought. Lex had simply told Whitney that Whitney had been a victim of the infamous Smallville meteor phenonmenon, and that the scientist had cured him. 

Luckily, Whitney remembered nothing. It wasn't really a big deal, because the position in which Whitney had caught Lex and Clark had been more awkward than truly compromising; but the less Whitney knew, the better. 

Lex stopped the car in front of Whitney's house. Lex looked Whitney in the eye and said, "I know you're probably feeling pretty freaked right now, but it's important that you tell people as little about this as you can manage. I've been funding Dr. Hamilton's research so that there can be help someday for all these people being affected by the meteor stuff. So the less people know until then, the better." 

Whitney looked away and said, "Hey, Luthor, I owe you big time, so mum's the word." 

"Good," Lex said as Whitney distractedly got out of the car. 

Lex then zoomed off back towards the school thinking about the moment he and Clark had shared. What IS Clark? Lex wondered. But that didn't really matter. Or at least it only mattered as it was now part of Lex's mission in life to help protect Clark's secret, and to....to what? 

Clark clearly reciprocated Lex's passion, but not on an entirely conscious level. What would happen when it was? Would Clark think Lex was trying to sexually corrupt him, to use him and then discard him? Lex's stomach lurched at the idea of Clark thinking that. 

He wanted to make love to Clark with every fiber of his being, but being Clark's friend was so much more important. Oh my God, Lex thought; THIS is what it feels like to truly love a guy! He then realized that he had previously always avoided totally committing himself to such feelings because the potential for feeling very vulnerable and getting badly hurt was just huge. 

But now he had found a guy who was totally worth that risk. If only Clark could know how total was the devotion Lex felt towards him, there was no way Clark would ever hurt him intentionally. Clark was someone to whom Lex could give himself completely and without reservation. It was part of the destiny he knew to be that of Lex Luthor. How could it be any other way? 

Lex grinned wryly at the cloying gushiness of his own thoughts. But they still had the CarBot to deal with. Lex had Hamilton's particle beam with the red rock still in it, and also a piece of the green rock, since the two neutralized one another. They were covered in a lead-lined taurplin because Lex didn't want Clark exposed to any of that meteor-radiation. 

Lex called the office of the Torch on his cell-phone. Chloe answered, sounding a bit distracted. Clark sounded downright disoriented. Lex hoped to God that Clark hadn't been telling Chloe about the moment Clark and Lex had shared. He also wondered if Chloe knew about Clark's exceptional abilities. 

Lex outlined his plan for dealing with the CarBot to Clark, all the while knowing the two of them would likely have much to discuss when he picked Clark up at the school. Lex suddenly felt a great deal of that vulnerability about which he had just been thinking. 

* * *

This was without a doubt the worst day of Clark's entire life. When he had left the office after talking to Lex on the phone, Chloe had said something he hadn't really heard. "There's nothing more to say about this!" Clark had said as he went out the door. 

As Clark looked around at the hallways and lockers that were so much a part of his daily life, it seemed like the backdrop of one of those bad acid-trips from 60's he had heard about. Clark couldn't get dizzy (he couldn't even get drunk because alcohol had no effect on his brain cells), but the disorientation he felt came damn close. He felt as if he wasn't even really walking down those halls, it was just an image on a video-monitor he was watching as he reeled and recoiled somewhere in the depths of his mind. 

It was bad enough that someone knew his secret, but the one who knew his secret was a guy who was IN LOVE WITH HIM!! But that wasn't the real reason for the state Clark was in. His mind went back to that moment with Lex outside the school. He had WANTED Lex to kiss him, had wanted it more than anything! He had blocked it out when Chloe and Pete had happened along in Chloe's car, but the confrontation just then with Chloe made any further denial impossible. 

All Clark could think was JESUS CHRIST, I'M IN LOVE WITH A GUY!! His mother might understand, but his father, card-carrying Republican that he was, would surely disown him without so much as a second thought! He had to head off what was developing between himself and Lex, except....he just didn't want to do that. He couldn't, especially when he imagined the devastated look on Lex's face. And what it would do to his own heart would be roughly analogous to what had happened to the World Trade Center seven months ago. 

As he left the building, Clark remembered that there was still the CarBot to deal with. But when Clark saw Lex's car pulling into the parking lot, he knew they would have to deal with each other first, regardless of what the metal monster was planning. 

* * *

Lex stopped the car in front of the entrance of the school. Clark got into Lex's car looking at Lex with what had to be a mixture of adoration and anxiety. Lex suppressed another wry grin as he drove the car forward and activated his tracking device. 

Lex thought it a good idea to recapitulate his plan. "Okay, Clark. This homing device is telling us where the CarBot is. I have a meteor-radiation particle beam developed by a scientist I'm funding so that this meteor madness can be brought to an end before more people can get hurt. This beam restored Whitney back to his usual charming self. And don't worry. The beam-generator has a red meteor-rock in it, but it's covered by a lead taurplin, so you should be okay." 

Clark smiled as he looked at Lex. "You're using your own money to help people who have been hurt by all this stuff that's been going on? There are times when I haven't been sure about you, but now I see how wrong I was. You just might end up saving Smallville!" 

Lex's heart positively thundered in his chest, but he simply replied, "Guess I really should do something to make up for all the crap my dad has pulled over the years." 

Clark gulped and said, "Lex, we gotta talk, and I don't mean about you knowing that I'm different. For the past five months, I've found myself forgetting about Lana. I told myself I was simply losing interest in something that had no future, but that was only part of the truth. I was slowly developing and interest....well, maybe not so slowly....in something that does have a future. My future with you." 

THANK YOU, GOD OR WHATEVER'S OUT THERE!! Lex shouted in his own mind. Lex looked earnestly at Clark. "So then you want this future to happen?" 

Clark's lower lip quivered a bit as he apparently realized that he and Lex were speeding towards whatever was ultimately to happen between them, just as surely as they were speeding towards the CarBot. "Well, I don't know if I can just jump into bed with you...." 

"....Because you're not that kind of guy?" Lex finished for Clark with another of his wry grins. 

"Lex, I'm serious!" 

"Sorry, Clark. Let me put it this way. I don't really care if you and I ever go that far." Lex couldn't believe he was saying these things, let alone that he absolutely meant them. "I just want you to be part of my life, hopefully for a very long time." 

"I want that, too," Clark said breathlessly. 

Lex felt a tear of joy well up but suppressed it because he didn't want to look like some stereotypical pansy-ass. Lex looked at the screen on his tracking device and saw that the CarBot was in the woods just north of Smallville. 

Lex knew it was time to go into action-mode. "The particle beam needs some time to charge up, so what I need you to do is keep the CarBot distracted while the beam is charging. And try to keep clear of the beam because we don't know what effect that red meteor-radiation will have on you." 

"Okay, let's roll." 

As the car headed towards the woods, Lex realized that "Detroit Rock City" by Kiss was playing on the radio, the song that had the car-crash sound at the very end. Oh, good one, Lex thought to God or whatever was out there. 

* * *

As Lex's car pulled up to the woods, Clark saw not one but THREE CarBots emerging from the trees. "That must be why it wanted all those car parts!" 

Lex stopped the car a good distance away from the metal monsters, got out with Clark, went to the trunk of the car, and opened it. "Okay, I'm going to take the particle-beam out from under this taurplin, so you should get away from here and distract those monsters. Since this beam needs time to recharge, you've got your work cut out for you, here." 

"Just give me a few seconds to focus. I need to do that to call upon my abilities. I can usually do it unconsciously, but now I think I'll need all the focus I can get." Clark called upon his extraordinary reserves and dashed off towards the CarBots in a blur. 

Clark stopped before the CarBots and declared, "Your reign of terror is over!" 

The original CarBot looked down at him and said, "It-has-only-begun. At-the-demolition-derby-this-Saturday, we-will-amalgamate-more-of-us. Then-this-car-destroying-town, will-know-the-true-meaning-of-demolition." 

The CarBot took a swipe at Clark, but Clark moved out of the way as a red beam hit it squarely in the chest. The CarBot collapsed into a pile of useless constituent parts. The two LackeyBots moved towards Clark, who blurred away again as another red beam collapsed a second one of their number. Clark had more difficulty evading the last metal monster. Now would be a good time, Lex, Clark thought before the red beam passed a few feet in front of him and felled the last CarBot. 

Clark staggered towards Lex's car feeling the molecules of his being vibrating strangely. Lex had horror and guilt in his eyes as he looked at Clark. "Clark, are....are you okay?" 

The only thing Clark knew for sure was that he was very much not okay. 

* * *

Lex couldn't believe his own stupidity and clumsiness. That beam had passed way too close to Clark! Clark staggered back towards him glowing red. "Clark, are....are you okay?" Lex said, even though Clark obviously wasn't. 

Suddenly, Clark morphed into the Soup Nazi from "Seinfeld"! 

"What are you staring at, you absurd little dick-headed man?!" the Soup Nazi bellowed. "You think the Soup Man is funny, do you?! Well, just for that, no soup for you for a year! How do you like THAT cilantro?!" 

Lex blinked twice and his eyes darted right and left. If this weren't Clark this were happening to, Lex thought, this would be damn funny. Lex reached into the trunk of his car and pulled out the green meteor rock. The Soup Nazi morphed back into Clark in a green glow. Clark abruptly fell to the ground, reacting to the adverse affect of the green rock. Lex reached down to the particle beam on the ground and pulled the red rock out of it. Clark looked up from the ground, staring up at Lex holding each of the rocks in both hands. 

"I suppose it would be terribly inappropriate of me to ask if you want to play with my rocks," Lex said with a wry grin that all the effort in the world couldn't suppress. 

"Hardy. Har. Har." Clark replied tersely. "Your scientist friend seems to be right about the neutralizing effects of the two kinds of meteor rock. Aside from reeling from your attempt at humor, I seem to be alright. What happened?" 

"You momentarily transformed into something....strange." Lex put the rocks down on the ground before putting the particle-beam back into the trunk under the taurplin. Lex then put both of the rocks under the taurplin as well before closing the trunk. 

Lex looked at Clark as Clark got up from the ground. "I tried to keep that beam away from you but...." 

"Hey, those things HAD to be stopped. And you also stopped whatever it was that was happening to me." Clark gave Lex a long, appreciative look. "It looks like you were the one who was the hero of the day, this time. Smallville owes you big!" 

Lex was only a few inches away from Clark, his heart thundering yet again with overwhelming elation. To hell with that cowardly resolution, Lex thought as he pressed his lips to Clark's. The two of them embraced and kissed long and passionately, the rest of the world effectively not mattering nor even existing. 

After they finished their kiss, Clark pulled back slowly and exclaimed, "WOW!!" 

"My sentiments exactly." 

Clark gave Lex his coyest look. "Looks like you and I make quite a team. In more ways than one!" 

This was by far the most triumphant day of Lex's entire life. Everything that he had experienced since losing his hair that day in the cornfield, and he had meant it when he had said he was glad it had happened, had been leading up to this culmination. The world was truly a beautiful place because it was now firmly Lex Luthor's oyster. 

* * *

Chloe felt pretty anxious going up to the loft in the Kent barn to see Clark. Would he ever forgive her for her temerity in confronting him about Lex? 

After she ascended the ladder, Clark looked at her nervously, looked away, and said, "You probably know the CarBot thing isn't going to be a problem anymore. And you can thank Lex Luthor for that. By the way, I'm sorry about that chair in your office. I had no idea it was so flimsy." 

Chloe breathed a sigh of relief. "That's okay. The office needs new chairs. New everything, as a matter of fact." Chloe sat on a bail of hay and Clark sat right next to her. "You were right, Clark. I really should have minded my own business. It's just the first time I've ever seen a guy fall in love with another guy." 

Clark looked at her earnestly. "Don't you mean that's the first time you've ever seen two guys in love with each other?" 

"Yeah, that's what I meant." Chloe felt relieved she no longer had to suppress the urge to point out what had made itself so very obvious two nights ago in the office of the Torch. 

"You've got quite a future as a reporter, no doubt about it," Clark said, breaking the tension with that 10,000-watt smile of his. 

"I'm sure you're bound to have an interesting future yourself." Chloe once again reflected on how glad she was that she and Clark were still friends. They spent the remainder of the visit talking about Torch stuff such as how badly the computer needed upgrading and how much more Chloe could get done more quickly if that could be possible. 

As Chloe walked away from the Kent barn into the fading sunset, she wistfully considered Lex Luthor to be a very lucky guy indeed. 

**THE END**


End file.
